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South Shore team triumphs in Oahu Red Bull Rivals

Victory celebration : photo Zak Noyle/Red Bull Photofiles

Red Bull Rivals

Sandy Beach, Oahu23 October 2010

Jamie O'Brien and Jun Jo team captains for North & South Shores

Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 26 October, 2010 : - - Honolulu -- This past Saturday saw some of the top surfers in Hawaii face-off, North Shore vs. South Shore, at Red Bull Rivals. Originally slated to take place in September but postponed due to flat conditions, last weekend Mother Nature offered 2-3 ft. waves with occasional bigger sets.

The 22 participating surfers had a choice to surf the Half Point or Full Point breaks for the 12 minute heats. The contest kicked off with a roshambo between team captains Jamie OBrien for the North and Jun Jo for the South. J.O.B. won and chose TJ Barron to surf against South Shores Ezekiel Lau. After each heat the winning teams captain had honors to pick the next heats match-up.

As one of the most exciting heats, the eighth pitted North Shores Alessa Quizon against South Shores Kelia Moniz. Goofy-footed shortboarder Quizon took to Half Point, while Moniz paddled her longboard to the Full Point break. Moniz pulled out all of the stops and wowed the crowd while dominating Quizon.

With 12 of the 14 heats completed the teams were tied at six wins each and South Shore had the advantage to pick who surfed the next two heats; the South Shore took a narrow victory of eight to six over the North Shore.

To keep things fair, the event was held on the Eastside of Oahu at Sandy Beach - neutral territory for the two teams. This was the second year the contest was held, and before the Red Bull Rivals 2009 competition, no surf event had been held at Sandy Beach since the early '80s. Instead of a traditional purse prize, the teams competed for each others surfboards used in the competition (which were then donated to the Surfrider Foundation) and, of course, the winning team earned the ultimate surfing bragging rights in front of a crowd of 3,000 locals.

TJ Barron : photo Zak Noyle/Red Bull Photofiles

Winning TeamFor the second year in a row, South Shore took the victory 8 to 6.

The RulesTen surfers for each team were chosen by online voting and each team had at least one girl and two groms (17 or under). The teams voted for the person they wanted to serve as their team captain. A ringer was allowed on each team and did not have to be disclosed until day of competition; the ringer could have been a surfer from anywhere in the world.